Baby, That's All We Need
by distantmuse
Summary: Joe, Natalie, and Vanessa struggle to settle into their new life together. (Spoilers for season 7)
1. Chapter 1

"She bit someone."

"Say what? Who bit someone?" There was confusion on the other end of the phone line.

"Who do you think?" Natalie sighed, fumbling in her desk for a bottle of Advil while holding her cell phone between her ear and shoulder. "Vanessa. I just got off the phone with the school principal."

"Well, it _could _have been one of your detainees." Joe joked.

"It's the second day of school, Joe. This isn't funny."

Joe leaned back in his new desk chair, rubbing his hand over his balding head. In addition to being Vanessa's second day of school, it was his second day as the director of development at the Poussey Washington Foundation.

"She introduced herself to us singing about getting high. We knew we weren't getting an innocent angel." Joe pointed out.

They'd quickly learned that Vanessa's singing repertoire also included Tupac, Snoop Dogg, and 50 Cent.

"Right, but I'd hoped that she could at least go the first week of first grade without inflicting harm on another child. Are we already screwing her up?" Natalie asked, shaking a couple of pills out of her Advil bottle.

"No way. She's only been with us for a couple of weeks."

"I'm serious."

"Nat, she was raised in a crack den until a year ago. We might be a little screwed up, but I think we are a significant improvement over that."

"True."

"When we all get home, we'll talk about it together."

"Then the Full House problem resolution music will play, and it'll all be fixed?" Natalie snarked as she tossed back the Advil with a bottle of water.

"No, she'll probably break into 'Nuthin' but a G-Thang,' but… We'll do our best."

* * *

Later that evening, Natalie and Joe sat at the dinner table with Vanessa, waiting for a good time to bring up the biting incident. With a wrinkled nose, Vanessa was pushing a pile of pesto-covered pasta around her plate. Joe hadn't quite mastered the art of cooking for a child.

"So, what did you do today in school?" Natalie asked.

"We had music class!" Vanessa's face brightened. "I got to play the triangle."

"That sounds like fun!" Joe smiled.

"Did anything bad happen at school today?" Natalie finally asked.

"Nope, I don't think so."

"So, you didn't… Bite… One of your classmates?"

Vanessa shrugged. "He touched my hair."

"Did you tell him to stop?" Joe asked.

"That's why I bit him. It made him stop. I thought it was better than decking him."

Joe covered his mouth with one hand to try to keep from cracking up. "Yes, but um… Next time, maybe you could just tell the teacher."

"All right. I guess so." Vanessa put her fork down. "Can I go play now?"

Natalie looked at Vanessa's nearly full plate. "You didn't really eat very much."

"I don't like the green stuff." Vanessa jutted her lip out.

"What about just three more bites?" Joe suggested.

"Okay." Vanessa shoveled three more bites of pasta into mouth in rapid succession. "Done."

"Wait, wait." Natalie held her hand up. "Do you have any homework?"

"I'm supposed to read two books with a grown up."

That was no problem. Joe and Natalie had loaded down a bookshelf in Vanessa's new room with titles from every genre they could find at Barnes and Noble.

"Well, you can go play for now, and I'll come read with you after I get dinner cleaned up." Natalie said.

"Um… Could Joe read with me instead?"

Natalie forced a smile, trying not to let on how deflated she actually felt. "Sure. Of course."

Vanessa hopped up and bounded up the stairs to her room. With a sigh, Natalie began picking the plates up off the table. Joe stood to help her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, sure. I'm fine." Natalie snorted. "I'm used to not being liked."

"Nat…" Joe wrapped his arms around her waist. "She likes you. Remember what the social worker told us."

Natalie remembered.

"_I'm not a psychic, but I've done this for a long time, so I can tell you how it's likely to go. She'll bond to you first, Joe. It'll take her a while to warm up to Natalie. She'll see you as trying to take the place of her mother, but since she never had a father, she won't see Joe as a threat in that way."_

Natalie sighed, resting her chin on Joe's shoulder. "I know, but it's one thing to hear about it and another thing to have to live it. I thought this would be easier. I thought she'd be happy to have a home, we'd be happy to have a kid, and we'd be this little happy family."

Joe's brow furrowed. "Are you not happy?"

"I'd be happier if she'd give me the time of day. She's bonded so much more easily with you."

"You just have to give her more time. You're doing a wonderful job, but the kid has had a tough life."

"I know."

"She's going to grow to love you just as much as I do." Joe promised.

"And how much is that?"

"Mmm. You know."

Placing one hand on the back of Natalie's head, Joe pulled her into a kiss. She quickly responded, opening her mouth and allowing her tongue to brush over his. Enjoying the feel of his girlfriend against him, Joe ran his hands down over her body, cupping her ass through her pencil skirt.

"Joe? Are you coming?" Vanessa called down the stairs.

Joe quickly dropped his hands and pulled away from Natalie. "Shit. I forgot I can't just do that whenever I want anymore."

"Yeah, that's definitely another adjustment." Natalie laughed, tugging her skirt back into place.

"You okay?"

"I will be."

Joe leaned forward to kiss her cheek, giving her a reassuring smile before he headed up the stairs to join Vanessa. Natalie watched him go before turning back to the dirty dishes. She hoped he was right.

* * *

_Reviews are little pieces of love that encourage me to write more and faster. ;) I also love suggestions!_


	2. Chapter 2

School had never been Joe's favorite place. Unlike Natalie, who had excelled in school and gone on to earn two college degrees, he had done exactly enough to coast through and graduate. In modern days, he would have probably received a diagnosis of attention deficit disorder, but in his, he was just considered a lazy, pain in the ass.

Vanessa's first grade classroom was decorated in the bright, meticulously organized way that only an elementary school teacher can accomplish. As they waited at a table for Vanessa's teacher, Joe bounced his leg nervously.

"Oh my God. Stop that now." Natalie demanded, pressing her hand down on Joe's knee to stop the movement. "What is wrong with you?"

"I don't like school." Joe admitted. "I feel like I'm back in the principal's office, and I'm in trouble all over again."

"One, you are a grown man. Two, we're not in trouble. This woman is trying to help us and Vanessa." Natalie was prepared for their meeting with a notebook and pen in hand.

"Mr. and Mrs. Caputo?" A pretty blonde woman in her mid-thirties entered the classroom, closing the door behind her.

"We're not actually married, it's uh…" Joe began.

"Just Joe and Natalie will be fine." Natalie cut in.

"Okay then. Nice to meet you both." The teacher said, shaking both of their hands and taking a seat across the table from them. "I'm Mrs. Miller."

"Nice to meet you." Natalie answered for both of them.

"I can already tell that Vanessa is a very bright girl." Mrs. Miller said. "She can be very sweet too, but… She does seem to be quick to lash out when she's angry. Does she do that at home?"

Natalie shook her head. "No, we haven't really seen her get angry. At home, she's more likely to… I don't know… Withdraw, sometimes. I guess that's the word I'm looking for."

"She was only placed with us a few weeks ago." Joe explained. "The adoption won't be final for a few months."

"Is she adjusting okay? Bonding with you?"

Wordlessly, Natalie pointed her finger at Joe.

"Yeah, she does seem to do a little better with me right now." Joe admitted. "Probably because she never had a father. It's blank on her birth certificate. We have no idea who he is or what happened to him, and neither does the state."

"She's having trouble with you?" Mrs. Miller asked, turning back to Natalie.

Natalie shrugged. "She's not rude to me or angry with me or anything. She just doesn't really want to spend much time with me if Joe's an option."

"Do you mind if I ask what happened with her birth mother?"

"Died of an overdose about a year ago."

Mrs. Miller frowned. "I see. It's all too common these days."

"Is she getting along with anyone?"

"She has made friends with a few girls, and she gets along with them for the most part. It's the boys that she's aggressive against. She talks tough sometimes, and sometimes, it's a little inappropriate." Mrs. Miller took off her glasses. "Academically, she seems to have trouble paying attention and staying still. She does well with numbers, but she's struggling with learning to read."

Natalie exchanged a look with Joe and jotted down some notes. "We need to mention all of this to her counselor."

"We'll be monitoring her progress to see if she needs intervention or testing."

"What do you suggest to help her settle down and not be aggressive with her peers?" Joe asked.

"It sounds like she's had a tough time, so she probably has some pent-up anger. Maybe see if she wants to play a sport or do some sort of activity as a release." Mrs. Miller suggested. "Just remember to be patient with her progress… It sounds like she's been through a lot; maybe things you don't even know about yet."

* * *

"So, what kind of terrible stuff did Mrs. Miller say about me?" Vanessa asked, standing with crossed arms while Natalie paid the babysitter who had watched her during their school meeting.

"She didn't say anything terrible about you!" Joe assured her. "We were all just meeting to see how we can help you get settled in."

Vanessa eyed him suspiciously. "And?"

"We were wondering if you'd like to try some kind of activity after school."

Vanessa tilted her head with piqued interest. "Like what?"

"Ballet?" Natalie suggested hopefully. She'd always had the vision of watching a daughter perform in dance recitals, twirling in fluffy pink tutus.

Vanessa wrinkled her nose. "Ew. No thanks."

"Basketball, soccer?" Joe tried.

"I don't really care about team sports." Vanessa shrugged with disinterest.

"Gymnastics?" Natalie asked.

"I don't want to fall and break my ass." Vanessa said, putting a hand over her mouth when Natalie mouthed "language" admonishingly at her.

"What about an instrument?"

"Yes!" Vanessa clapped her hands together.

"Okay, now we're getting somewhere." Natalie said. "What do you think? Piano, flute, clarinet, violin…"

"Guitar." Vanessa interrupted. "The bass guitar!"

While Joe beamed with delight, Natalie smiled tightly, trying not to think about how it was going to be yet another thing for Joe and Vanessa to share and for her to be left out of. How was she ever going to build a relationship with her?

"Well, that's easy enough." Joe said. "We just need to get you a kid-sized guitar, and we can start right away."

"When can we get one?" Vanessa was bouncing with excitement.

"How about now?" Joe asked.

"Yay!" Vanessa squealed, throwing her arms around Joe. "I'm going to go get my shoes!"

Joe watched Vanessa run up the stairs and turned back to Natalie sheepishly. "I'm sorry. I guess I should have discussed that with you. We both just got excited. Is it okay?"

"Yes, it's fine. It'll be good for her." Natalie forced her disappointment down further, knowing that it was important for Vanessa to bond with someone – even if it wasn't her.

"Do you want to go with us?"

"No, I'll go ahead and start dinner. You two go ahead and have fun." Natalie said, leaning forward to kiss Joe's cheek.

"Bye Natalie!" Vanessa said, throwing a wave over her shoulder as she headed for the front door.

"Bye." Natalie said with a sad smile.

* * *

"Why haven't you put a ring on it?" Vanessa asked.

Standing in the middle of the musical instrument store, Joe reached out to adjust the guitar strap around her neck, checking to see if it fit her better after he fiddled with it. "Say what?"

"Why aren't you and Natalie married?"

Joe was taken aback. Vanessa hadn't shown much interest in their relationship since she had been with them. "Why do you ask?"

"You're doing it backwards." Vanessa said, strumming her fingers over the guitar's strings. "You're supposed to get married then have kids."

Joe shrugged. "Does it really matter as long as two people were happy?"

"It's weird. You didn't even knock her up on accident. You two actually went and picked out a kid like most people would pick out a dog."

Joe looked offended. "It wasn't like that!"

"It kinda was!"

Joe sighed. "Look, marrying Natalie is in my long-term plans."

"Why 'long-term'? Why not now?"

"Well, she was married before for a number of years and it… Ended badly."

Vanessa's face fell. "Did he beat her up or something?"

Joe's eyes widened with concern that Vanessa's first thought was violence. "No, nothing like that. He decided he, uh… Didn't like women."

"He's GAY?!" Vanessa gawked.

_Oh God. Natalie's going to kill me for telling her that, _Joe thought.

"Um, yeah, that's pretty much it." Joe moved Vanessa's hands so that they were resting correctly on the guitar's neck. "It really hurt her, so, we're just holding off on that for now."

"But you love her, right?"

"Of course I do." Joe eyed her, figuring it was as good a time as any to ask and see if he could get the truth from Vanessa. "Do _you_ like her?"

"She's funny and really smart." Vanessa shrugged, taking the guitar off her body. "She's just not _anything_ like my real mom."

"I see." Joe nodded, taking the guitar from Vanessa.

"I really miss my mommy." Vanessa said, swiping quickly at her eyes before any tears could fall.

Joe frowned, placing a comforting hand on Vanessa's shoulder. Words failed him as he finally realized that to the world, Vanessa's mother had just been another junkie who had overdosed.

But to Vanessa, she had been her mommy and her world.


	3. Chapter 3

"Hey, babe." Joe said as he came through the door from work. He found Natalie on the couch watching Love Island, clad in sweatpants and an old college t-shirt. His lips met the top of her mussed hair with a kiss. "Where's Vanessa?"

Before she could answer, Joe heard the screeching of a bass guitar being strummed by a very inexperienced player coming from upstairs. Natalie winced and rubbed her hand over her eyes, which Joe noticed looked tired.

"I think we should ask her to change her hobby to miming. She'd look really cute in a little beret."

"Ah, she'll get better. I'll keep working with her." Joe looked around. "Do we need to start dinner?"

"No." Natalie yawned. "I ordered pizza. It should be here in fifteen minutes."

Joe held back a laugh. In all of the time they had lived together, Natalie had _never_ ordered pizza. He wasn't sure he'd ever seen her _eat _pizza and having an all-out carb fest delivered to their door seemed to be Natalie's ultimate white flag of surrender to the trials of motherhood. They had both thought that since Vanessa was older, it wouldn't be as exhausting to parent her.

That was laughable.

Getting her out of the bed in the morning required actually dragging her out of it by her feet, standing her up, and pointing her to the bathroom to start getting ready for the day. There was a never-ending mountain of tiny laundry; Natalie swore that Vanessa changed clothes at least three times a day.

Natalie also swore that she was going to ban Cheerios from the house because she found them _everywhere._ Little girls were way messier than she had bargained for. Vanessa managed to spill at least one drink per day. The floor of her room looked like a Barbie nudist colony unless one of them scolded her into cleaning it up.

Homework was a nightmare that normally ended in one (or all) of them having a fit of rage. Both Natalie and Joe had trouble understanding what the _point _of ten minutes of homework per night in first grade even was, but the way Vanessa acted, it might as well be ten hours.

The couple wasn't used to all of their new responsibilities, plus working, and wondered if they ever would be. Joe couldn't imagine how they would have kept up with a two-year-old like they had originally agreed on – or before that, a baby.

"I think just picked up a major donor." Joe said, sitting down on the couch beside her and pulling her legs into his lap.

"That's great!"

"It's going to be a huge donation, but I'm going to have to go meet them and schmooze a little. I'm actually flying down to Florida for the weekend."

She'd only been half listening, mostly fixated on the oiled, glistening chests of twenty-something-year-old men, but when she picked up on "Florida" and "for the weekend," she quickly tuned back into what he was saying. "Wait, what? What did you just say?"

"I have to fly to Florida tomorrow for the weekend."

Natalie sat up abruptly on the couch, horrified. "You're going to leave me alone with _her_?! For the whole weekend?!"

Joe chuckled. "She's a little girl, Nat. Not a demon."

"We don't know that, Joe. Have you seen The Ring?"

"You're a good mother." Joe reassured her. "It's going to be fine."

"What am I going to do with her the whole weekend?" Natalie threw her hands up in the air. "I don't know what she wants to do."

Quality mother and daughter time was a foreign concept to Natalie. Her own mother had spent more time traipsing around the country club, with a martini in one hand and her tennis instructor's dick in the other, than she ever had with her only daughter.

Joe tried to hide a smile. "Here's a crazy idea, Nati. Why don't you try _asking her_?"

Natalie huffed. She hated when he made sense.

"It'll be good for you girls. Take my credit card. Go on a shopping spree. Get mani pedis. See a chick flick. Whatever girly shit you people do."

"_Your _credit card?" Natalie scoffed. "That'd be the shortest shopping spree in history."

"You're home!" Vanessa thundered down the stairs and hugged Joe warmly. "Hi!"

"Hey, kiddo." Joe stood from the couch and greeted her by ruffling her hair lightly.

"What's for dinner? It's not pesto again, is it?" Vanessa asked warily.

"No, we're having pizza delivered." Joe answered.

"PIZZA!" Vanessa clapped her hands, jumping up and down. "Joe, you ordered pizza!"

Joe smiled at her enthusiasm. "Actually, Natalie did."

"Natalie!" Vanessa exclaimed, flinging her arms around Natalie's slender waist. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Natalie held her breath for a moment, almost afraid to move. Vanessa had hugged her before, but always briefly. Like a butterfly, she landed just for a moment then quickly flitted off again. This time, she lingered just a bit – just long enough for both Natalie and Joe to notice. They locked eyes over her curly head, and Joe gave his girlfriend a smile as if to say "_See? It's going to be fine."_

She still wasn't so sure.

* * *

"Mmm. I'm going to miss you when I go out of town." Joe pulled Natalie back against him by her hips, pressing the bulge forming in his pants against her ass. "See how much I want you right now?"

"Joe, we can't…"

They still hadn't attempted the art of having sex with a child in the house, even when said child had been put to bed and was already fast asleep. Not that they hadn't had sex. Joe had lost a few pounds from the lunches he'd skipped in favor of fucking Natalie while she was bent across her desk.

"I'm pretty sure people with kids still have sex with them in the house, and she's a pretty heavy sleeper." Joe whispered, pushing against her slightly.

"But what if she wakes up?

"We'll tell her we were practicing wrestling."

"Ha, ha."

"Jesus, Natalie, her mother was a prostitute. She's probably heard more than we'll ever know." Joe pointed out.

"God, I don't want to think about that."

"Think about me instead. About how it would feel to have me inside of you." Joe slid his hands from her hips down to the apex of her legs, teasing her through the material of her sweatpants.

"Not. Fucking. Fair." Natalie breathed, grinding herself against his hands despite herself.

"I know." Joe smirked.

"Did you lock the door?" Natalie asked nervously.

"Yes." Joe mumbled around a mouthful of her ear.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Go check it yourself if you don't trust me."

She didn't. Sliding out of his grasp, she walked over to the door and jiggled the knob to check. Locked.

"Then take your fucking clothes off."

Joe didn't have to be asked twice, making haste of removing his own clothes, then helping her with hers. He backed her onto the bed, barely giving her a chance to lie down before he entered her.

Natalie whimpered loudly, grabbing him by the back of the head. "Oh fuck, _yes_, Joe."

"Shhhh." Joe hissed in her ear as he clamped a hand over her mouth. "You definitely can't moan like that if you don't want her to wake up."

Natalie moved Joe's hand off her mouth, instead sucking his index finger into her mouth to muffle her moans. She had never pinpointed why, but he _loved_ it when she did that. He responded to her with a loud groan.

"Now _you're_ too loud." Natalie chided him.

Joe covered her mouth with his own, their tongues battling to swallow the noises of their pleasure as he thrusted into her. They were finally releasing their inhibitions and enjoying each other when Joe abruptly stopped.

"What?" Natalie asked, panicked.

"Did you hear something?"

"No."

They laid still, listening for the sound of small footsteps. Only silence met their ears, and Natalie pulled on Joe's hips to encourage him to continue.

"The mattress is too fucking squeaky." Natalie complained. "She's going to hear it."

Joe paused again. "I could stop thrusting."

"What are we, Mormon?"

"We could move to the floor."

"No thanks. It's hardwood. Pardon the pun." Natalie said, crinkling her nose.

Joe sighed, trying not to lose his erection from her incessant complaining. "The shower?"

Shower sex had never been Natalie's favorite. It was wet in all of the wrong ways in all of the wrong places, and their heights and her long legs made it all the more awkward to find a position that worked.

But she was past the point of no return on wanting an orgasm that night, so she reluctantly followed Joe to their master bathroom. It was far from their best sex, but it got the job done. They both felt more comfortable with the sound of the running water to drown out their sex sounds.

After, Joe watched in amusement as Natalie immediately flopped onto their bed, wrapped in her fluffy navy robe with her damp hair hanging around her face. Wordlessly, she grabbed her iPad from the nightstand.

"What mission are you on now, babe?"

"I'm ordering a new fucking mattress."


End file.
